Back to french

Who is Jean-Frédéric Poisson ?

Born January 22nd, 1963, in Belfort, Jean-Frédéric Poisson is a politician of conviction. His beliefs and values are rooted in his field experience, above any partisan considerations. He grew up in provincial France, then in a sensitive district of Parisian suburbs. At the age of 19, he led a cultural and youth centre located north of Hauts-de-Seine department. He came to meet uprooted young people and took care of those in distress. From there originates his championing of human dignity, which he has been standing up for ever since.

He then took up philosophical studies, which he concluded with a PhD in bioethics.

Holding a master’s degree in social law, he became HRD in the metallurgy sector, then led a consulting company. He is one of the very few French deputies to know the entrepreneurial world from the inside, and to have experienced it as a leader.

Meanwhile, he got involved as a local representative in 1995 in the South of the Yvelines department and became mayor of Rambouillet from 2004 to 2007. He was president of the Rambouillet urban community from 2009 to 2016.

He has been president of the Parti Chrétien-Démocrate (PCD) (Christian Democratic Party) since November 16th, 2013, and vice-president before that.

He becomes president of VIA | la voie du peuple (ex PCD) (VIA | People’s path) on 3 October 2020.

He attended a national session at the Institut National des Hautes Etudes de la Sécurité et de la Justice (INHESJ).

Deputy from 2007 to 2010, then from 2012 to 2017, he was elected by his peers vice-president of the law committee of the French parliament in 2013. He focused on sovereign matters: justice, security, prisons. Among other duties, he was responsible for parliamentary control over state of emergency enforcement.

He took an active part in social issues and has been the cutting edge of parliamentary Opposition on the “Taubira act” a.k.a. “mariage pour tous” (same-sex marriage), of which he demanded the repeal, without condition nor redraft.

In his book Personne ne doit mourir seul [Nobody should die alone] published in March 2015 (Éditions Universitaires), he stands up for the expansion of palliative care, and against any form of euthanasia.

Denouncing militant secularism which confuses religious neutrality of the State with neutrality of society, the PCD, under his lead, launched a petition in 2015 to keep Nativity scenes on display in public areas: this petition gathered up to 150 000 signatures.

With a wealth of concrete and active experience behind him in the professional and business world, he then became a member of Parliament renowned as one of the most expert on economic issues, social dialogue, and labour law.

UMP (a French party now called Les Républicains) therefore appointed him as “keynote speaker”, championing the positions of his peers in all the discussions that took place during the debates at the Assemblée Nationale over the texts comprising the soon-to-be Macron Act. This provided him with a genuine tribune to explain why any vision of a merchandised society should be rejected.

Opposed to the future Trans-Atlantic Free-Trade Agreement and concerned with French sovereignty and with the safeguard of France’s sectors of excellence, he created a parliamentary working group on these topics and met the main negotiators of the agreement. He demanded national Parliaments to be involved in discussions.

As a detractor of a supranational and soulless Europe, he claimed for primacy of national law over European law.

Committed to fighting against terrorism, he managed to obtain the creation and presidency of a parliamentary fact-finding mission. Endowed with prerogatives equalling that of a committee of inquiry, this mission focused on ISIS (Daesh) resources, and its full report was issued in summer 2016 (Éditions des Équateurs).

Concerned with the fate of Eastern Christians and convinced, as early as 2012, that crises shaking the Middle East and bearing immediate implications for France and Europe should be addressed urgently, he undertook a series of visits: Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Morocco. On each visit, his approach was straightforward: meeting people in the field rather than commenting on media frenzy, to cooperate on critical matters – control of migration flows, intelligence, training of imams. He was the first to speak out against the erring ways of the French policy in Syria and its disastrous implications on world peace, a topic he developed further in his book Notre sang vaut moins cher que leur pétrole – La France à l’épreuve du Proche-Orient [Our blood is worth less than their oil – France tested against the Near East], published in June 2016.

Long before terrorist attacks occurred, he pointed out the great deal of harm done by multiculturalism to France and Europe. He asserted that the issue concerning Islam would not be solved in a society built solely on unlimited individual rights, but rather by regaining our Christian inheritance. In line with this, he wrote his hard-hitting book L’islam à la conquête de l’Occident – La stratégie dévoilée [Islam sets out to conquer the Western world – A strategy unveiled] (Éditions du Rocher).

As president of the PCD, he ran in the French right-wing primaries in 2016. Following this election and having acknowledged that its winner had reused – in part – themes he had been upholding throughout the campaign (family, respect for national sovereignty, Christian inheritance, a rebalanced foreign policy). Mr. Poisson requested that he commit himself more specifically to several points of his project. François Fillon’s answer enabled him to envision a joint and complementary collaboration, thus he decided to support him for the purpose of the 2017 presidential election and becomes a member of his political committee.

Jean-Frédéric Poisson will have been one of the very few political leaders not to call to vote for Emmanuel Macron in the second round of the Presidential election. He declared “rejoicing [in that decision] all day long in the view of the ever-faster downward spiral our country has been experiencing since this election”

From then on, he has worked on a transversal scheme of alliances respectful of various sensitivities and affiliations. He met numerous political leaders and called for the elaboration of a common program for the right-wing, aiming to build an alternative answer to Macronism, which he will have kept criticizing, especially on its three characteristics: “Multiculturalism – Globalism – Ultraliberalism”.

Despite the apparent failure of the initiative “les Amoureux de la France” (France’s lovers) – a political platform created in September 2017 with the purpose of gathering right-wing actors, and collectively founded by Véronique Besse, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, Emmanuelle Mesnard together with Jean-Frédéric Poisson, he remained fully convinced that his intuition was the right one. On April 6th, 2019, he thus declared on TV Libertés set: “I have been saying it since the beginning, I will somehow fight the battle for a right-wing common program, namely the collective process of writing a document which will outline a recovery plan for France. Whatever happens, I will fight this battle, whether on a political or an intellectual level, probably on both.”

In September 2019, Jean-Frédéric Poisson participated as a speaker at the Convention of the Right organised by the magazine L’Incorrect (The Incorrect) and the Cercle Audace (Bravery Circle).

Very much at the forefront of bioethical issues, he is one of the few politicians to support the fight against the bioethics revision bill containing the opening to PMA without a father and multiple societal drifts. The PCD is the only national political party to officially call to protest this bill in the streets of Paris. He also participated in the two major national « Marchons enfants » (March Children) protests on 6 October 2019, 19 January 2020 and 2021.

In 2019 and 2020, many personalities joined Jean-Frédéric Poisson, including regional legislators or former MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) such as Joëlle Bergeron and Paul-Marie Coûteaux or Patrick Mignon, former vice-president of Debout la France.

In the 2020 municipal elections, Jean-Frédéric Poisson launched, with the PCD, participations in coalition and alliance lists in many cities, with the priority objective of fighting against the establishment of Macronism at local and national level.

Facing repeated attacks of the Government and Emmanuel Macron against the french civil freedoms, Jean-Frédéric Poisson opposed himself to several liberticidal projects. He denounces the dangerous restriction of our freedoms, and particularly that of expression (Avia law), freedom of worship, and defends the protection of our privacy (StopCovid application and law on data filing).

Thus, when the government announced that it would maintain the absolute ban on religious celebrations despite the deconfinement that would begin on 11 May 2020, the Christian Democratic Party and Jean-Frédéric Poisson filled a petition for interim relief to contest the legality of the government’s decision. A few days later and after a long hearing of the petitioners and the Ministry of the Interior, the Council of State ruled in favour of the legal grounds that Jean-Frédéric Poisson had defended and forced the Government to lift the ban on religious celebrations. This victory in the service of a fundamental freedom of the French people was followed by great media coverage!

In the summer of 2020, he co-founded and launched with Paul-Marie Coûteaux a new magazine « Le Nouveau Conservateur » (The New Conservative) to which several personalities contributed: Philippe de Villiers, Emmanuelle Ménard, Eric Zemmour, Marion Maréchal, Thierry Mariani, Valérie Boyer, Ivan Rioufol…

In an interview granted to Valeurs Actuelles, published in the 15th of July 2020 edition, he makes the following declaration about the 2022 presidential election: « (…) The Right must devote itself to this intellectual mutation: the time is no longer when the person of the leader is enough to bring people together. It is necessary to work on a common unifying project and to find someone capable of carrying it and embodying it. I am clearly one of those people. (…) I will be a candidate« .

On 3 October 2020, at its national convention, the members of the Christian Democratic Party re-elected Jean-Frédéric Poisson as head of the party and voted for the change of name to VIA | la voie du people (VIA | The way of the people).

On 14 October of the same year, he published La Voix du Peuple (Editions du Rocher) in which he proposed an institutional reform that aims to return power to the French people and to place trust in them?

Throughout 2021, with VIA | la voie du people (the people’s way), he has
been fighting against the liberticidal measures put in place by the
Government of Mr Macron for the management of the COVID crisis. On
29 October, the State Council ruled in his favour and directed the
Government to reinstate self-testing for people who wish to obtain a health
pass. At the beginning of December, he filled a petition with the State
Council demanding a suspension of the decree shortening the validity of
tests from 72 to 24 hours.

On 22 September 2021, in an interview with Sud Radio, Jean-Frédéric Poisson said he was ready to withdraw his candidacy and to commit to supporting Eric Zemmour if he took into account the dimension of human fragility and mutual support in his presidential project, and if he committed himself to uniting the forces of the right wing, while respecting their sensibilities and affiliations.

On 18 November, he became President of Amitié Politique (Political Friendship), a think tank for the diffusion of conservative thought.

Following Eric Zemmour declaring his candidacy, on 2 of December, he committed himself to the presidential candidate and joined his political council. At the campaign launch rally at Villepinte on 5 December 2021, he gave a speech in which he called for the fragility and poverty affecting many of our compatriots to be taken into consideration.

During the general elections, VIA brings about 30 candidates within a group based on Reconquête! along with Le Mouvement Conservateur (The Conservative Mouvement) and the Centre National des Indépendants et Paysans (National Centre of Independants and Farmers), CNIP. In September, Jean-Frédéric Poisson signs with the three political parties a political and voting agreement to confirm their will of putting together the conservatives’ strenghts, knowing that they only can weigh by being united.

In March of 2023, while the debate on euthanasia is in full swing and the Convention Citoyenne sur la fin de vie (People’s Convention on end of life) has not come to conclusions yet/has not brought its conclusions yet, he publishes with Mame Editions Soins Palliatifs, la vraie alternative à l’euthanasie (Palliative care, the true option to euthanasia) and begins a nationwide lecture tour.

In July 2023, he joined the Board of Directors of the ECPM (European Christian Political Movement), a European party federating national parties of Christian social inspiration. For VIA | la voie du peuple, this appointment represents an opportunity to gain a foothold in Europe, with a view to the European elections of 2024.

IN BRIEF

Positions at the Assemblée Nationale:

  • Vice-President of the Law Commission (from October 2013)
  • Member of the Office of « Les Républicains » Group at the Assemblée Nationale
  • Founding member of the parliamentary Agreement for Family
  • President of the fact-finding mission on ISIS (Daesh) resources
  • Rapporteur of the law on the state of emergency
  • President of the parliamentary days of occupational health.
  • President of the international group France-South Soudan.
  • Vice-President of the special commission to consider the proposed act « for growth, activity and equal opportunities » (a.k.a. Macron act)
  • Vice-President of the working group « Prison and prisons conditions »
  • Vice-President of the working group « Prevention and fight against drug addiction »
  • Vice-President of the international working group France-Holy See
  • Vice-President of the friendship working group France-Jordan.
  • Member of the National Observatory for suicide (from 2013)
  • National secretary of « Les Républicains » group in charge of employment issues (from 2002 to 2004, then from 2009 to 2014).

Publications:

Books

  • Les soins palliatifs, la vraie alternative à l’euthanasie, 2023 (Editions Mame)
  • L’Islam et la Macronie, 5 ans de lâcheté, 2022 (Editions de Paris)
  • La voix du peuple, 2020 (Editions du Rocher)
  • L’Islam à la conquête de l’Occident, 2018 (Editions du Rocher)
  • Notre sang vaut moins cher que leur pétrole – la France à l’épreuve du Proche-Orient, 2016 (Editions du Rocher)
  • Personne ne doit mourir seul, 2015 (Éditions universitaires)
  • Bioéthique: l’homme contre l’Homme? 2007 (Presse de la Renaissance)
  • La dignité humaine, 2005 (Études hospitalières)
  • Bioéthique, éthique et humanisme, thèse de doctorat en philosophie, 2001 (Etudes hospitalières)
  • Le mythe bioéthique (ouvrage collectif), 2000 (Editions Bassano)

Parliamentary reports

  • Report « Assemblée Nationale fact-finding mission on ISIS capacity » July 2016 (Editions des Equateurs)